Australian Indigenous Languages Research Articles

A semantic typology of emotion nouns in Australian Indigenous languages

ABSTRACT In this article, we analyze lexicographic material for emotion nouns in a sample of 57 Australian Indigenous languages, with a view to understanding the lexical prevalence of different emotions. Several prominent semantic clusters can be identified in the sample, centred around the notions: anger; feeling; shame; love; fear; and sorrow. After presenting the semantics and shared features of these clusters, we look to colexifications between emotional and non-emotional meanings. Two prominent patterns of colexification arise in the data: behavioural metonymies; and associations with internal body parts. Taking the view that colexifications can be indicative of diachronic semantic change, we suggest these patterns reflect semantic pathways of emergence. We also consider what principles may explain why a given emotion category is prevalent cross-linguistically. Semantic pathways may represent an underlying factor in the selection of categories, where an emotion is associated with significant social behaviours; or figuratively with an abdominal body part (seat of emotion). It is unclear whether the “primary” status or cultural salience of certain emotions has some impact on the prevalence of emotion nouns in Australian languages. These initial results pave the way for future research into the emergence and spread of emotion vocabulary across languages and across word classes.

How Linguistic Data Can Inform Archaeological Investigations: An Australian Pilot Study Around Combustion Features

Abstract We present an interdisciplinary collaboration whereby linguistic data are explored with the aim of gaining new insights on archaeological features to enrich investigations of the past. Archaeology on its own relies on a very discontinuous record and here we argue that a fuller use of linguistic resources can offer more nuanced insights of the cultural context, and thus a more comprehensive reconstruction of both archaeological histories in general and archaeological features specifically. Languages, as complex human artefacts, often develop vocabularies that reflect speakers’ need to communicate about everyday objects and actions. Therefore, it makes sense to turn to lexicographic and semantic data as sources of additional clues about various aspects of the past. To date, this kind of collaboration has either focused on aspects of culture that leave little trace in the archaeological record or on aspects of material culture that informs wider histories of migrations and contacts. Collaboration has also, more often than not, had the goal of answering linguistic rather than archaeological questions. The novel approach we propose here is a focus on a domain which does leave a substantial trace in the archaeological record and that falls in the realm of mundane aspects of the universal human experience – i.e. domestic fire use – with the aim of gaining a more nuanced and culturally grounded understanding of archaeological features and their investigation. This article is a demonstration in principle for the potential of this approach, illustrated here with a pilot study of combustion features on the Australian continent. Having collected fire-related words in a sample of dictionaries of Australian Indigenous languages, we explain how and why the information they encapsulate can support archaeological studies.

Frames of spatial reference in five Australian languages

ABSTRACT Australian Indigenous languages are widely cited as depending overwhelmingly on abstract cardinal terms for spatial reference. However, considerable under-recognized diversity exists, with systems invoking aspects of local topography or egocentric projections. The first step toward an empirically grounded understanding of the wider implications of Australian spatial reference systems is to establish what components of spatial systems actually occur in what combinations across the continent. This article examines the spatial systems of five Australian languages to test hypotheses about the role of the environment in shaping linguistic representations of space, revealing under-recognized aspects of Australian systems, including the use of egocentric (“relative”) reference frame but only on the sagittal axis; a nearside-farside system; and multiple systems invoking diverse salient environmental features.

Bridging Australian Indigenous language learner’s guides with SLA materials development frameworks

The learner’s guide (LG) is a genre of pedagogical materials for Australian Indigenous languages, but LGs developed by field linguists are often questioned regarding their capacity to effectively facilitate language learning and, eventually, language revitalisation. This reflects a gap in the literature where applied linguistics perspectives are limited in Indigenous language studies, and vice versa. This study aims to address this gap by examining nine existing LGs published over the past four decades using a modified framework based on Tomlinson’s guidelines for second language acquisition (SLA) materials development. Findings show that the LGs are designed based on one of the three model types: (1) Type 1: non-communicative grammar-based, (2) Type 2: practice-integrated grammar-based, and (3) Type 3: text-driven meaning-based, among which the text-driven model has, theoretically speaking, the best potential to achieve pedagogical purposes. Yet, in general, existing LGs likely fail to equip learners with communicative competence. Other issues of greater complexity are also raised, including material comprehensibility and limited resources. A critical implication for the field is the necessity of empirical needs analyses for future LG development. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2021.1970179 .

Modular Information Management: Using AUSTLANG to Enhance the Classification of Australian Indigenous Knowledge Resources

ABSTRACT This research explores the potential for AUSTLANG – a database of Australian Indigenous languages – to enhance the identification of Australian Indigenous languages in MAchine Readable Cataloguing (MARC) bibliographic records. At present, it is acknowledged in the discipline of Library and Information Sciences (LIS) that material relating to Indigenous peoples are improperly and/or insensitively classified using mainstream library systems such as Dewey Decimal Classification. AUSTLANG was approved as a MARC language source code in November 2018 and has given libraries the ability to identify Australian Indigenous languages with standardised, culturally sensitive identifiers. The following research considers the variety of orthographies, codes and synonyms available for a sample of four Australian Indigenous languages as listed in AUSLANG and contrasts these with the single, authoritative AIATSIS reference names and codes contributed by the database. This research also considers how AUSTLANG can contribute to the classification of Indigenous Knowledge resources. Currently there is only a small body of technical information available on AUSTLANG and little focussed academic research, making it difficult to ascertain the success and characteristics of its implementation. This research represents an exploratory academic contribution and calls for a wider research effort.

Exploring Phonological Aspects of Australian Indigenous Sign Languages

Spoken languages make up only one aspect of the communicative landscape of Indigenous Australia—sign languages are also an important part of their rich and diverse language ecologies. Australian Indigenous sign languages are predominantly used by hearing people as a replacement for speech in certain cultural contexts. Deaf or hard-of-hearing people are also known to make use of these sign languages. In some circumstances, sign may be used alongside speech, and in others it may replace speech altogether. Alternate sign languages such as those found in Australia occupy a particular place in the diversity of the world’s sign languages. However, the focus of research on sign language phonology has almost exclusively been on sign languages used in deaf communities. This paper takes steps towards deepening understandings of signed language phonology by examining the articulatory features of handshape and body locations in the signing practices of three communities in Central and Northern Australia. We demonstrate that, while Australian Indigenous sign languages have some typologically unusual features, they exhibit the same ‘fundamental’ structural characteristics as other sign languages.

Mothers, Mountain Devils, and Pointing to Eternity: The "Horns" Handshape in Australian Indigenous Sign Languages

Australian Indigenous sign languages are predominantly used by hearing people as a replacement for speech in certain cultural contexts. In some circumstances sign is used alongside speech, and in others it may replace speech altogether. This article provides a window on some of the articulatory dimensions of these sign languages by examining the distribution of the "horns" handshape in repertoires of sign from a range of communities in Central and Northern Australia. The horns handshape is notable as it is one of the more common handshapes found, at least in some of the sign languages used in Australian Indigenous communities. This contrasts with the apparent infrequency of this handshape in some other sign languages of the world. By implementing a methodology that takes the interconnections between sign and speech into account, the article explores loose networks of semantic association in signs that employ this handshape and assesses evidence of semantic motivation for its use in sets of related signs.

Remote Indigenous education and translanguaging

Indigenous1 children living in the more remote areas of Australia where Indigenous languages continue to be spoken often come to school with only minimal knowledge of English, but they may speak two or more local languages. Others come to school speaking either a creole, or Aboriginal English, non-standard varieties which may sound similar to English, which gives them their vocabulary, while differing in terms of structure, phonology and semantics and pragmatics. This paper begins with a discussion of the linguistic contexts the children come from and the school contexts the children enter into before moving on to discuss a potential role for some use of translanguaging techniques in the classroom and discussing the potential benefits and advantages these may have.
 1The term Indigenous is used respectfully to refer to all people of Australian Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. Indigenous languages and Australian Indigenous languages are used to refer to the languages of both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders following NILS3 (2020).

Embodying kin-based respect in speech, sign, and gesture

Abstract In Australian Indigenous societies the means for demonstrating kinship-based respect are rich and varied, and mastery of their ideological and contextual dimensions is highly valued and an indication of communicative expertise. Special speech registers, sometimes referred to as ‘mother-in-law’, ‘brother-in-law’, or ‘avoidance’ languages, are one aspect of this complexity. Another dimension of respect is afforded by Australian Indigenous sign languages, used in contexts where speech itself is disallowed as well as in everyday interactions where signing is practical and useful. What is lacking from the majority of accounts of these special semiotic repertoires is an investigation of the ways that speech and communicative actions, such as sign or gesture, may work together in such contexts. Also neglected is the possibility that the articulation of signs and gestures may be modified to indicate a respectful stance towards avoided kin. Drawing on both archival sources and recent fieldwork, this paper delineates some of the articulatory dimensions of signs and gestures used in this domain.

Prosodically Conditioned Consonant Duration in Djambarrpuyŋu.

Cross-linguistically, segments typically lengthen because of proximity to prosodic events such as intonational phrase or phonological phrase boundaries, a phrasal accent, or due to lexical stress. Australian Indigenous languages have been claimed to operate somewhat differently in terms of prosodically conditioned consonant lengthening and strengthening. Consonants have been found to lengthen after a vowel bearing a phrasal pitch accent. It is further claimed that this post-tonic position is a position of prosodic strength in Australian languages. In this study, we investigate the effects of proximity to a phrasal pitch accent and prosodic constituent boundaries on the duration of stop and nasal consonants in words of varying lengths in Djambarrpuyŋu, an Australian Indigenous language spoken in northeast Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. Our results suggest that the post-tonic consonant position does not condition longer consonant duration compared with other word-medial consonants, with one exception: Intervocalic post-tonic consonants in disyllabic words are significantly longer than word-medial consonants elsewhere. Therefore, it appears that polysyllabic shortening has a strong effect on segment duration in these data. Word-initial position did not condition longer consonant duration than word-medial position. Further, initial consonants in higher-level prosodic domains had shorter consonant duration compared with domain-medial word-initial consonants. By contrast, domain-final lengthening was observed in our data, with word-final nasals preceding a pause found to be significantly longer than all other consonants. Taken together, these findings for Djambarrpuyŋu suggest that, unlike other Australian languages, post-tonic lengthening is not a cue to prosodic prominence, whereas prosodic domain-initial and -final duration patterns of consonants are like those that have been observed in other languages of the world.

Australian Indigenous Land Management, Ecological Knowledge and Languages for Conservation.

Many Indigenous Australians hold cultural, ecological and language knowledge, but common representations of Indigenous Australians focus on social disadvantage and poor comparisons with other Australians in education, employment and health. Indigenous Land Management works with Indigenous people's cultural, ecological and language expertise, employing Indigenous people in activities contributing to biodiversity conservation. The Interplay research surveyed 841 Indigenous people in remote communities. Those employed in land management reported greater participation in cultural activities, language knowledge, and belief that their land was looked after. These related assets provide an opportunity for policy approaches based on Indigenous people's strengths and contribution to Australia.

The intergenerational transmission of Australian Indigenous languages: why language maintenance programmes should be family-focused

ABSTRACTBy 2050, the majority of Australia’s surviving Indigenous languages are likely to become extinct. The intergenerational transmission of languages in which children acquire languages from their parents and grandparents is a key mechanism for reversing language shift, but many Australian children whose parents speak an Indigenous language do not speak that language. Using a unique, national survey of Australian Indigenous children, I identify factors associated with the successful intergenerational transmission of Indigenous languages within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. Results highlight the importance of parents’ language use. Although community-level characteristics account for some of the variance in successful language transmission, parents who use Indigenous languages at home, speak them as well as they speak English, and do not also speak a creole language are more likely to pass those languages onto their children.

Speech-language pathologists’ assessment and intervention practices with multilingual children

Within predominantly English-speaking countries such as the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, there are a significant number of people who speak languages other than English. This study aimed to examine Australian speech-language pathologists’ (SLPs) perspectives and experiences of multilingualism, including their assessment and intervention practices, and service delivery methods when working with children who speak languages other than English. A questionnaire was completed by 128 SLPs who attended an SLP seminar about cultural and linguistic diversity. Approximately one half of the SLPs (48.4%) reported that they had at least minimal competence in a language(s) other than English; but only 12 (9.4%) reported that they were proficient in another language. The SLPs spoke a total of 28 languages other than English, the most common being French, Italian, German, Spanish, Mandarin, and Auslan (Australian sign language). Participants reported that they had, in the past 12 months, worked with a mean of 59.2 (range 1–100) children from multilingual backgrounds. These children were reported to speak between two and five languages each; the most common being: Vietnamese, Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Australian Indigenous languages, Tagalog, Greek, and other Chinese languages. There was limited overlap between the languages spoken by the SLPs and the children on the SLPs’ caseloads. Many of the SLPs assessed children's speech (50.5%) and/or language (34.2%) without assistance from others (including interpreters). English was the primary language used during assessments and intervention. The majority of SLPs always used informal speech (76.7%) and language (78.2%) assessments and, if standardized tests were used, typically they were in English. The SLPs sought additional information about the children's languages and cultural backgrounds, but indicated that they had limited resources to discriminate between speech and language difference vs disorder.

Coarticulation and consonant cluster production in Iwaidja.

Articulatory analyzes of consonant cluster production have provided a rich source of information for modeling the production of speech over the years. It has been suggested that Australian indigenous languages show remarkable stability in heterorganic C1C2 sequences where C1 is coronal and C2 is noncoronal as in /nk/ sequences. In other words they show little or no anticipatory place of articulation assimilation. In this paper, the focus is on consonant cluster production in Iwaidja, an endangered Australian indigenous language spoken in the Northern Territory, Australia. Like most Australian languages, Iwaidja has a rich set of oral stop, lateral, and nasal place of articulation contrasts. Results of an acoustic phonetic and electropalatographic study show that assimilation is resisted in various ways in order to maintain place contrasts in certain sequences. Strategies include gestural delay and associated lengthening of initial consonants in C1C2 sequences. Nevertheless there is also clear evidence of a range of other effects including blending in situations of gestural conflict. Implications for models of coarticulatory processes are presented in the light of prevailing speech production models and compared to earlier findings based on analyzes of two other Australian languages: Warlpiri and Arrernte.

How Useful and Usable are Dictionaries for Speakers of Australian Indigenous Languages?

This paper presents the results of our investigations of the use and usability of dictionaries of Australian Indigenous languages for speakers and language learners. We report results from task-based and qualitative observational studies with seventy-nine people from three Indigenous language groups, and sixteen of non-Indigenous background, working with nine different dictionaries, including elementary and comprehensive dictionaries, and paper and computer dictionaries. We examine competing pressures placed on the lexicographer by demands for completeness of coverage and ease of access, by the need to accommodate low levels of literacy in English and the vernacular, by the range in users’ knowledge of the vernacular, and by the shortage of resources. Our conclusions echo informal remarks to this effect by other linguists working with Indigenous populations. This paper adds the results of a number of previous studies, some results from comparing paper and computer dictionary usability, and practical suggestions for improving the situation. ‘The perfect dictionary is one in which you can find the thing you are looking for preferably in the very first place you look.’ (Haas 1962: 48)

Policy- and system-level approaches to health promotion in Australia.

This issue of Health Education & Behavior presents articles from researchers and practitioners in Australia who are working to create supportive political and social environments for health. Much of what happens in health promotion in Australia at the individual, workplace, group, or community level shares similarities with interventions conducted by colleagues across the world. What differs, and what visitors to Australia often remark on, is the high degree of public acceptance of, and legislative-level support for, promotive and protective health practices. At a national level, these include, for example, extensive regulation of smoking in public spaces, vehicle passenger safety restraints, blood alcohol restrictions for drivers supported by random breath testing, bicycle helmet laws, private swimming pool fencing regulations, gun control legislation, and laws preventing the use of hand-held mobile phones in moving vehicles. In this editorial, we briefly describe the Australian context, give a brief overview of the articles in this special issue, and attempt to account for how and why health promotion in Australia has developed a strong policy and system-level focus. 1 Australia is roughly the size of the United States with a population of 19 million people. The population is culturally and linguistically diverse. Indigenous Australians make up 2% of the population. Currently, 8 million residents were born overseas or have parents who were born overseas. More than 280 languages are spoken, including 170 Australian indigenous languages. A language other than English is spoken at home by 16% of the population. Universal access to publicly funded health care has been provided through